Yurt It Up
by Chrys-DASL
Summary: Bitzi's dream house isn't like everyone else's. With her retirement in place, can you guess where she ends up moving? For my 10x10 Challenge/NaNo2018


Bitzi (7): dream house (9)

 _Yurt It Up_

I sighed with relief as I sat up in bed. Finally, finally, finally, after years and years of slaving away just to live in a tiny "condo," (more like a shoebox), I could finally afford my dream. I sold all my things, packed away what I couldn't part with, and moved to the islands. Yeah, I was living in a yurt, which got a lot of looks from people, but it was MY yurt.

My yurt was one of the smaller designs, but I didn't want to have too much room. Besides, it kept out unwanted guests when all you had was a spare beanbag chair for a bed, no offense to my friends and family. I moved here for me, not them, and I mostly wanted to be alone.

If they thought the beanbag chair was enough, they usually ran at the thought of a composting toilet. They are correct in that it's a lot to get used to. I liked keeping a clean house before, or at least as clean as I could manage with a son like Buster, but a sparkling toilet was high on my list of must-haves. You don't have the "clean smell" that goes along with that with this toilet, oh no. There's always a light smell coming from the bathroom, and there's nothing I can do about it. Tends to run off unwanted visitors in a flash.

If they make it that far, the shower situation tends to get them. The house can do one shower a day, ONE, and it has to be in the early afternoon before the rains cool everything down. Water is pulled into a storage tank and kept higher up so the sun's rays can warm it. You get one shower, and it's only somewhat warm most days. It can get hot-hot, so you have to be careful, but it's nothing I can't handle.

The design elements did take me some getting used to. Yurts are round, and I grew up in rectangular houses. My first bedroom was perfectly square, and everything else has been a box. A friend of mine had an angled wall in his house, and I thought it was the craziest thing. Now I live in the middle of a giant circle. Yes, there are walls of sorts dividing out the rooms (they're glorified tent walls, so no hanging up pictures here. I use painter's tape to hang up posters and that's about it), but the outer walls are all round. The yurt is so small that every room as a view of the outer wall, and it really bothered me for a while. But then I realized this was my house, it was in paradise, and there was nothing to really complain about now that I had my dream.

A short walk away was a rocky beach. It was the sandy beach people dreamed about, but it was my beach. While it wasn't mine specifically—I didn't buy it or anything—it was private to whoever was on that side of the island, and most people preferred the sandy beaches on the other side of the island anyway. So I got it to myself. I had a chair I could take out and adjust so it could sit flat on the rocks. Then I could watch the waves pour in.

The afternoon rains were sometimes a problem, but now that I was trying my hand at gardening again, it was actually beneficial. Apparently I wasn't watering my plants enough back in Elwood City, or something along those lines. I haven't had a plant die since I moved here, which was really an achievement. Just ask Buster, and he'll tell you just how horrible I am at keeping plants alive. It's so bad that he wonders how I raised him, but he was fine. Plants? Apparently I was in the wrong climate. Who knew?

The island itself is better than I ever dreamed of. The prices for basic needs aren't that bad, since that was a concern. There's a small town near the port that's quite interesting, though I spend most of my time wandering around the island itself instead. If I want to eat in a restaurant, there are a handful to choose from. There are shops, crafts, and tons of interesting people that change daily because of the ports. If I ever get tired of the island, which happens from time to time, I take a boat to another island and explore there. That's the benefit of living in an island nation.

That part was difficult though. I wanted a dream house in a special place, but it took a lot of paperwork to get everything to work. I had to do an extensive background check for the country, which took almost eight weeks. I had to get so many things in order that I thought it wouldn't happen. The yurt company was happy to put things off as long as they needed to, but it still took longer than it should have. My career as an editor must've tipped them off or something. That's all my case manager said could be the problem, but who knows? The entire process took over six months, so long that I think a lot of people would've quit.

But I didn't quit. I wanted my yurt. It's blue, green, and yellow, just like my favorite birds on the island. It has everything I need and not much else. Do I miss having a full kitchen and a flush toilet? Sometimes, but that's what hotels on the other islands are for. I just go there when I want amenities, and then my cravings are satiated. I do miss America sometimes, but I'm going to visit Buster and his wife next Christmas. I'll stay a week or two, then I'll come back to my real home feeling lighter and more carefree.

~End

A/N: 10 down, 90 to go in my 10x10 Challenge! For more information, see my profile or PM me. Keep in mind that you don't have to do it in a month—that was a personal choice and we'll see how it goes. If you do participate, let me know so I can read your responses.


End file.
